Running and Cellphones?

[Joe]

Any runners here?

Do you carry a cellphone with you when you run?

The head of an environmental group I am involved with (John) is an avid runner and runs as part of an informal club. His landline phone went into disrepair and he waited several days to borrow a friend's phone to call the phone company to have it fixed. So he was incommunicado. Some of us have urged him to get a cellphone as a secondary phone. He has been reluctant to do so. Some of us are concerned that he needs to be able to summon help if he sprains an ankle or has a similar emergency while out running. He usually runs alone and late at night (like 2 or 3 am). He has been asked to talk to other members of his running "club" about this, but he says the only ones who carry cellphones when they run are women. While he did not come out and explicitly say this, he seems to think that carrying a cellphone with him when he runs is too "girly" or "sissyish" or something like that.

Your comments, please.

 

[shyvas]

I think that it necessary to carry a cell phone when you're somewhere all alone. The only reason why I have one is in the event of having a breakdown or accident whilst driving.

 

[PTree15]

I agree with shyvas. I take mine on hikes and even short walks. I usually walk along major roads, so I suppose I could hail help if I needed it, but I feel better having my phone just in case. Given the hours when your friend is running, I would think it imperative that he have some sort of phone, even a prepaid just for emergencies.

 

[Second Summer]

Having to carry a phone while running sounds very inconvenient. I don't feel like I need one around here, but then this is also a pretty civilized area. I've never felt unsafe here. Perhaps I would have felt differently about it if I lived in a more dodgy area in the US, and were running at night.

 

[Joe]

Having to carry a phone while running sounds very inconvenient. I don't feel like I need one around here, but then this is also a pretty civilized area. I've never felt unsafe here. Perhaps I would have felt differently about it if I lived in a more dodgy area in the US, and were running at night.

"Carry" is used in a very abstract, almost metaphorical sense. There are two devices (for want of a better word) that I found in Target (a department store) for $5 each. They are both made by Vivitar, which I thought was primarily a camera and film company. The first is a sports belt. The "belt" is made primarily of a nylon-like material, with a horizontal zipper along the length of the belt. To use it, you unzip the zipper, which reveals a very long cloth pouch. You put the cellphone (and/or other things, if you want to) inside the pouch, zip it up, and just put on the belt. The second device is an arm band designed to be worn above the elbow. It has a vertical pouch for a cellphone, and another pouch for a key. It has a Velcro strap that makes it easily adjustable. These devices make it very convenient to carry a cellphone with you when running.

I am sure there are plenty of other things available in sports equipment stores or online that make it easy for people to carry things like cellphones or keys or whathaveyou when they go out running.

By the way, John is a serious environmentalist as well as a serious runner. He has been involved in lawsuits against various polluting companies. One of these companies hired two thugs to beat him up. They accosted him when he was out running alone. Luckily, he managed to outrun them. Still, I think it would have been better if he had a cellphone with him, and could have called the police.

 

[shyvas]

"Carry" is used in a very abstract, almost metaphorical sense. There are two devices (for want of a better word) that I found in Target (a department store) for $5 each. They are both made by Vivitar, which I thought was primarily a camera and film company. The first is a sports belt. The "belt" is made primarily of a nylon-like material, with a horizontal zipper along the length of the belt. To use it, you unzip the zipper, which reveals a very long cloth pouch. You put the cellphone (and/or other things, if you want to) inside the pouch, zip it up, and just put on the belt. The second device is an arm band designed to be worn above the elbow. It has a vertical pouch for a cellphone, and another pouch for a key. It has a Velcro strap that makes it easily adjustable. These devices make it very convenient to carry a cellphone with you when running.

I am sure there are plenty of other things available in sports equipment stores or online that make it easy for people to carry things like cellphones or keys or whathaveyou when they go out running.

By the way, John is a serious environmentalist as well as a serious runner. He has been involved in lawsuits against various polluting companies. One of these companies hired two thugs to beat him up. They accosted him when he was out running alone. Luckily, he managed to outrun them. Still, I think it would have been better if he had a cellphone with him, and could have called the police.

That is disgusting.

 

[PTree15]

...

By the way, John is a serious environmentalist as well as a serious runner. He has been involved in lawsuits against various polluting companies. One of these companies hired two thugs to beat him up. They accosted him when he was out running alone. Luckily, he managed to outrun them. Still, I think it would have been better if he had a cellphone with him, and could have called the police.

Unbelievable. Just awful! I am glad he was able to escape, but I agree about having a phone. Even if he's not under attack, he could fall and get injured. Having a phone would allow him to call for help.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I don't run with a phone and I don't think it's necessary in general, however you have to look at the specific case, running at night might change things, as might being very old or having a heart condition or something.

 

[Moll Flanders]

It's just common sense to take a mobile phone with you if you are going out alone at night.

 

[Joe]

It's just common sense to take a mobile phone with you if you are going out alone at night.

John is quirky and stubborn and somewhat of a Luddite. I don't think anyone has ever accused him of having "common sense."

Just so you understand the specifics of what we are talking about, it would cost him $4.97 (yes, under $5, that is not a typographical error) to buy a suitable "flip" cellphone at Home Depot plus about $80 a year to buy prepaid cellphone coverage from Tracfone. This is pretty much dirt cheap. (It isn't possible to give exact figures, because Tracfone often gives its customers "double minutes" or triple minutes, but the reasons for doing this or the circumstances in which it does this are unclear to me, or I can't figure out the "logic" Tracfone uses. In other words, it might turn out to be less than $80 per year due to various "special offers.")

 

[Amy SF]

I see no reason why he can't do the bare minimum to stay safe when he's out running. A cheap basic cellphone with the cheapest minutes plus one of those items, belt or armband, sounds to me like a reasonable solution.

 

[PTree15]

John is quirky and stubborn and somewhat of a Luddite. I don't think anyone has ever accused him of having "common sense."

Just so you understand the specifics of what we are talking about, it would cost him $4.97 (yes, under $5, that is not a typographical error) to buy a suitable "flip" cellphone at Home Depot plus about $80 a year to buy prepaid cellphone coverage from Tracfone. This is pretty much dirt cheap. (It isn't possible to give exact figures, because Tracfone often gives its customers "double minutes" or triple minutes, but the reasons for doing this or the circumstances in which it does this are unclear to me, or I can't figure out the "logic" Tracfone uses. In other words, it might turn out to be less than $80 per year due to various "special offers.")

I have a friend who is similar to John. He won't get a cellphone, but he did buy an iPad, and now he is hooked.

I can understand the aversion to cellphones. It took me a while to come on board, but I was sure glad I had one for the times I broke down in my car. It's increasingly difficult to find public pay phones anymore, so having a cell for emergencies is a must for me.

 

[Joe]

I see no reason why he can't do the bare minimum to stay safe when he's out running. A cheap basic cellphone with the cheapest minutes plus one of those items, belt or armband, sounds to me like a reasonable solution.

Well, of course, I agree with you. But he has rejected my proposal. He seems to think that the future will be like the past.
He does not factor in that he is getting older and that other changes are going on. ATT wants to get out of the landline business. It is likely that he will have more and more "disruptions" to his landline service since ATT will not spend the money to keep the lines in good repair. The safety-while-running issue comes on top of all this.

 

[AeryFairy]

I used to run before I realised it doesn't agree with me, and I always took a phone - mostly for music (and, for a while, an audio running game), but also in case of emergency. I had an armband holster thing for it, which cost me a couple of quid from amazon. These days, a lot of work out clothing has stuff built in (like small zipped pockets) for holding small items like phones and keys anyway. Seems silly not to really.

 

[Joe]

I can understand the aversion to cellphones. It took me a while to come on board, but I was sure glad I had one for the times I broke down in my car. It's increasingly difficult to find public pay phones anymore, so having a cell for emergencies is a must for me.

Yes. I got my first cellphone due to vehicle breakdowns (and the need to cope with them). It was in addition to my landline phone, which I could not take with me in my vehicle, of course. I had several incidents involving breakdowns where I had to beg other people to use their phones to call for help--and most of the time these phones were cellphones. I have had a AAA membership for years, but AAA often wants to call you back, possibly more than once. So in practice this means you have to have your own cellphone.

Even if you could find a payphone, even if you knew there was one inside the lobby of business X, your vehicle breakdown could easily occur when business X was closed. So, don't have a breakdown on a Sunday. New York may be "the city that never sleeps," but Nashville seems to be the city that goes to sleep early. Most businesses are closed by 8 or 9 pm.

 

[Amy SF]

Pay phones are becoming increasingly scarce everywhere because mobile phones have replaced them. And what if something happens to your friend while he's out at 2 am and nobody is around, he's on the ground, and he's in no condition to get up and look for a landline phone that in all likelihood isn't available? He can simply pull out a cellphone and call 911.

 

[Chryssie]

I agree with what everyone else has said. I think a cellphone has become a necessity these days for all the reasons already stated. I have not had a landline in several years and I do think they are dying out. I have seen only a couple pay phones around anymore. Before I got a cell, I thought they were frivolous but now I literally do not go out the door without it. I think of it as a safety device as I have had numerous vehicle breakdowns and was often driving alone.

 

[Joe]

Chryssie, I basically agree with you, but there is another "wrinkle" in the mix. If ATT gets out of the landline business,
it may tell people like John he has 90 days to find alternative phone service. But this does not necessarily mean a cellphone.
ATT, Comcast, Verizon and many other such companies have jumped into the fiber-optics market, and are busily trying to string fiber-optics cable into every home they can. If they were to string fiber-optics cable to John's place, he would probably be able to continue to use the phone he is using now with his copper landline. This would not help him in the injured-while-running scenario, but it would sort of give him an excuse not to get a cellphone. In other words, an excuse not to change.

Fibre-optics cable could also offer video services to its customers the way Comcast cable does now, as well as offering internet connections.

 

[Chryssie]

The fiber optic landline would be an option for that issue. I do think a cellphone is needed for safety even if one has a landline. Your friend running late at night and alone is at risk for all kinds of things. I hope he will reconsider and get a cheap pre-paid cell!

 

[silva]

I still have a tracfone I bought with a years time and tripling minutes for about $100. in all.
If not for just their own safety, the idea of being out at night could mean witnessing all sorts of things. What if they encountered a car crash? an injured animal? a smoldering house? A wandering person? A downed electric line? Add in the ability to get a picture...
It's also reeing to be able to go out of the house while expecting or needing to make calls.